Ties of the Bound
by Shadow Griffin
Summary: A sequel to Tribulation of the Chosen. Ahsoka gave the slightest of smiles at the gasped words, fully ready to weather the storm that was brewing not too far away. He had come to find her, and she was going to fight by him - the late realization by her fellow prisoners and poorly hidden fear of her captors only fed her hidden joy. "He's here."


Ladies and gents, it has been so very long since I have been able to write that this little bit brought me such a profound joy that I can't describe it. I apologize for the radio silence, cancer, it seems, enjoys stealing time from me. In between work and treatment I have created for you an excerpt from a future chapter of this story.

Please keep in mind I have been struggling to keep up with the SWCW universe amidst the chaos, but this story is a sequel to "Tribulation of the Chosen" and appears somewhere in the time frame just before Ahsoka leaves the Jedi. If you read the original story before the sequel it will make more sense to you.

I don't own, my dears. Just the O/Cs and story line, nothing remotely important. I look forward to hearing from you all.

Happy Writing,

~Eliana

IOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOI

The gritty sand irritated her teeth as she hissed out another breath of aggravation, her sharp incisors flashing in the setting sunlight as it filtered through the bits of remaining leaves on the decimated tree. The coos of the terrified younglings only served to push her patience all the more, and unconsciously, though she knew there was no point, Aarent gave a slight tug at the binders on her wrists. Of course it was fruitless.

Her home world didn't feel so much like home through this aggravation, and her temporary joy at finding her old friends in this chaos was drowned out by the near-uncontrollable urge to tear the head off of the cloaked creatures not too far from them, further up the cliff. She couldn't tell from this distance quite what they were, all she knew is that the young female they came dragging in not too long ago, bound, unconscious, and bleeding, was one of her kin that she had saved all those years ago. Since she had come to, Ahsoka hadn't said a word – she hadn't acknowledged the doctors, her old companions, the children – instead, on her knees on the sharp rocks devoid of grass and life, she sat perfectly still, eyes shut, and Aarent knew exactly what it was that she was doing.

A good distance away, what looked to her eye now as a small white dot, was the hospital they all had been marched from...some sixty hostages for these (she would settle for now until she had a better term) things to control while the chargers stampeded through what little remained of their comrades. Surely, these fools didn't understand exactly what it was that they awoken. Two Jedi generals, friends of Ahsoka's, and the child herself, had been a bad enough idea to kidnap...apparently they hadn't signed their death warrants definitively enough. So they shot and severely wounded another Jedi, one who wasn't here, and that one's friend had been taken as well. Five Jedi, she would admit, was quite the accomplishment. The one behind it all knew what he was doing. He made one fatal error.

Surely the thought process must have been that all that was left to defend the struggling five year old behind her, cradled against a nurse, was nothing more than a teenager. A teenager certainly couldn't take on the entire armies and multitude of enemies that had been called upon to gain control of this one, Force-sensitive Endrati-plagued near-toddler. That was logical. Logic had failed.

Far beyond the hospital gates as they had been forced on their march she had seen the great herds pummel through the never-ending fields, felt the vibrations through her body even at such a distance of their feet pounding the soil as they charged into the fray, led by nothing more than a teenager. But there was something more. She could feel it.

Sitting on top of this great sheer stone cliff that had been burned out by bombs and gasses, she allowed her eyes to wander, hearing the soft sobs of the terrified children who grouped in clusters around the adults. Her friend Tocarra leaned heavily against the stone wall behind her back, dried blood caked to her head and face dying her skin a darker color than it had naturally ever been. Donavan was behind her, to her left, the pale pink skin of the five year old standing out roughly against his own orange skin as the adult let out a long breath, sharing a look with her before both of their gazes traveled to Ahsoka. She sat solidly on her knees on the edge of the cliff, overlooking the nearly click's distance worth the drop to the nearest large landing – and even that had to be at least three clicks off the flat plains. The padawan hardly moved as she breathed, and though Don's eyes were bright with joy at seeing one of his old patients healthy and well, they held a glow of worry. There were another twenty younglings on the landing below them along with more of the staff.

How in the world was she going to get them out of this? Aarent didn't know what to do.

With Ahsoka here that made only one Jedi...what became of the others? Where was Eddy? Why hadn't these fools taken the child they were after and just run? Sheila, the girl's name was, obviously couldn't even hold herself upright let alone run, and Tocarra had taken a good sized crack of a blaster butt to the temple standing her ground to protect her charges. Maybe that's what Ahsoka was doing – checking on her friends... although they were distantly related siblings, the ways of the Jedi made Ahsoka an oddball that the albino simply couldn't decipher. Every nerve in her body was wired –

And all of a sudden the air left her lungs. Her skin dimpled heavily and every Togrutan perched on the giant cliff, on both landings, grew suddenly silent, the children all tucking their heads and holding their breaths as their eyes grew wide, staring off the near click to the far drop where the ground below wasn't even visible to them.

There was the oddest of sounds, a sharp sweeping that rhythmically sliced through the now heavy silence, the song of this warrior's hungry blades bringing a freezing chill through all who were present. Slowly the rhythmic ringing and hum grew louder, the nearly set sun dark enough to give away flashes of lavender light the chased and played with the dark at the edge of the drop.

Schwing...schwing...schwing...

Don and Aarent could almost feel the angry rumbles rip through the low sound waves that made their mouths grow dry, but it was Tocarra, who had been nearly unconscious moments earlier, who spoke – her voice husky and pained, yet filled with the slightest bit of fear. The fear wasn't for the stranger who approached, but for the storm she was about to witness. It all suddenly made sense – Ahsoka gave the slightest of smiles when the doctor gasped out:

"He's here."

And far down at the foot of the cliff stood one lonely figure, his armor-clad body bruised and dust covered from the battle he had led. The pale purple lightsaber blades swung as chain blades by his sides as the glowing golden eyes slowly traveled up the sharp incline in front of him, a rumble escaping his lungs as he finally locked onto his distant sister's silent call. The glowing irises flashed I the dark as the pupils dilated with the adrenaline of another fight, the primitive thrill of the hunt. Djibourdi's teeth bared with a deep grumble at the challenge - his last sound before the lightsabers were grabbed by their hilts and the blood-skinned Togrutan charged the face of the mountain.

IOIOIOIOIOIOIOI

I hope you enjoyed it, my friends. I look forward to hearing from you all.


End file.
